Candidate Set Selection and its Correlates: Philippine Senatorial Elections

• In Event: The Role of Candidates and Issues in Voting Behaviour

Abstract

In the Philippines, senators are nationally elected officials and citizens vote for 12 candidates every 3 years. The country’s electoral features include a weak party system, a low information environment for voters, and a history of political dynasty rule and preponderance of media celebrities in elected political office. The paper first applies cluster analysis on exit poll data for the 2010 Senatorial election and then examines predictors of senatorial candidate sets. Hypotheses are proposed based on theories and evidence that name recall has important consequences in voter decision-making under low information circumstances, and that media celebrities and members of political dynasties benefit from the name recall vote. Findings support predictions that voters put media celebrities and members of national political dynasties together often on a ballot, and that the voters who are likely to operate with little information are more likely to vote for these candidates. These are voters with low education, low income, live in rural areas, and who exhibit high abstention rates.

Authors

• Clarissa C. David, U of the Philippines

• Erika Fille Legara, Agency for Science, Technology, and Research